My two cents: Byrne searching hard for UA women's hoops coach

Arizona and Colorado dismissed their women’s basketball coaches within 24 hours of each another this month. CU hired a search firm to help identify a new coach; Arizona’s Greg Byrne does that himself.

He has been so good at these searches, he could someday run a consulting business for college ADs. Byrne seems to revel in the voyage of discovery.

Byrne didn’t fly with the UA basketball team to Rhode Island last week. He took an overnight red-eye flight from San Francisco to Charlotte, North Carolina, sleeping on the plane, searching for a successor to Niya Butts.

He’s apt to hire a coach late this week or early next week. It wouldn’t be a shock if he gave long consideration to San Francisco Dons coach Jennifer Azzi, who has rebuilt USF into an NCAA Tournament team from a place even worse than Butts left Arizona’s women’s program.

But Azzi, one of the great players in Stanford history, is 47 and viewed by many as the likely successor to Stanford legend Tara VanDerveer. Byrne won’t lack for good choices.

Although many Tucsonans yawn at the mention of women’s basketball, Byrne sees potential. On Friday night, ASU drew just 3,134 as a host of a first-round NCAA Tournament game against New Mexico State.

If Arizona’s next women’s basketball coach can ever get the Wildcats into the position to host a tourney game, the crowd would likely double that one in Tempe.

But first Byrne must hire the right coach and catch up on his sleep.